Foot guards and toe protectors have been devised to provide foot protection for workers such as those who handle heavy articles or work with potentially dangerous equipment such as lawnmowers. Examples of foot protective devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,002,662 and 2,973,590. Other foot protective devices have been devised for use with foot casts and orthopedic shoes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,263,679, 3,773,041 and 3,916,538 described toe protectors for use with walking heels that project downwardly from foot casts. These devices have ordinarily been of a cup-shaped form which are designed to be either releasibly or permanently mounted to the cast heel.
More recently, an orthopedic shoe has been conceived that has a removable toe guard as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,583. A toe protector has also been devised, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,138, for use with an orthopedic cast which protector also has a removable toe guard. The provision of a removable section is advantageous for it enables a physician to gain temporary access to the exposed toes of a patient that project out of a foot cast or shoe for examination and treatment.
The last two mentioned types of devices have been designed for limited use with either a specially constructed orthopedic shoe or with an in situ formed cast. In general, toe protectors have been rather bulky and costly to manufacture. It therefore would be a distinct advance in the art were a toe protector to be devised that could be mounted to shoes of various constructions as well as to orthopedic foot casts while possessing the attributes of simplicity and economy. It is thus the provision of such a toe protector to which the present invention is primarily directed.